SAR modeling and simulation of complex extended scenes

Traditional SAR simulation is based on Point Scattering Model (PSM), in which the physical process of electromagnetic (EM) scattering is simplified and the effects of multiple-path, anisotropy and frequency dependence are often ignored. In this paper, a novel SAR simulation method based 3-D scene with facet model and propagation and scattering of EM wave is proposed. The method utilizes high-frequency EM scattering theory and ray tracing technique to compute the received field at each azimuth location and each discrete transmitted frequency, which is recorded and then processed to SAR image, and also can be transformed to SAR raw signal if necessary. Compared with other methods, the proposed method is valuable not only for SAR system design and imaging algorithm validation, but also for the research of SAR imaging characteristics and target recognition.